NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Prudential Fixed Income senior portfolio manager Greg Peters said on Thursday that he has been reducing his overweight position in junk bonds because the "risk-reward is just not favorable."

Peters, who helps oversee more than $100 billion in multi-sector fixed-income portfolios at PGIM Fixed Income, said after high-yield's huge run-up late last year and into 2017, junk bonds no longer offer ample value.

Even so, "I'm not bearish, per se, of high yield but we have taken it down" in our portfolios, Peters said.

He said the group is taking on a defensive posture and holding on to double-B credits because they have "a really good carry component to it."

Investment-grade investors who are reaching for yield buy the double-B-level credits, while junk bond investors who no longer want to hold triple-C credits in a weak market want to purchase the double-B credits as well.

"So you have this kind of unique characteristic in the double-B market that allows you to do well in lots of different cycles," Peters said.

Peters, the former Morgan Stanley chief global asset strategist who sounded an early alarm about the 2008 financial crisis, said he also is shorting German two-year bonds, also known as Schatz, because they have become "really, really, really rich." (Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Trott)